J&K Minister Haseeb Drabu puts foot in his mouth, says state govt employees get paid for no work

Srinagar: Finance Minister of Jammu and Kashmir has said that 4.5 lakh employees of the state government were not doing any work and the government was paying them unnecessarily. The issue is likely to snowball into a major controversy, as the strong government employees union have previously protested against such statements.

Jammu and Kashmir Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu. Image courtesy PIB

Finance Minister, Haseeb Drabu, was talking to a delegation of veterinary doctors, who had called on him after they refused to participate in the examination alleging that the government has kept far fewer seats for them in the government sector.

The doctors, who meet Drabu, have leaked the video which has gone viral on the social networking sites.

It is not the first time that a minister has spoken contemptuously about the state government employees and lack of work culture in the state.

Earlier the former chief minister of the state Omar Abdullah had echoed similar sentiments, though he was not as blunt as Drabu when he stated that he can run the government with mere 50,000 persons.

“I pay salaries amounting to Rs 22,000 crore to 4.5 lakh government employees, who do absolutely no work”, Drabu said.

Drabu told the delegation that he doesn’t want any debate on transforming economy stating he has enough experience as the delegation had called for the need for job creation in the state.

“I can give you mobile vans and help you get private partnerships,” he said. The minister didn’t give any word to unemployed doctors about jobs saying that the government is just salaries for the employees.

Drawing parallel with Bihar, which has five times more population than Jammu and Kashmir, Drabu said Bihar has only 4 lakh government employees.

The statement of the finance minister is likely to embarrass the government as none other than the finance minister himself described his recent budget as pro-employees.

Drabu presented Rs 79,472 crore deficit budget. In the budget, the minister had laid emphasis on pro-employees welfare initiatives, including the implementation of 7th Pay Commission from April next year.

During 2017-18, the state government intends to spend almost Rs 79,472 crore. Of this, developmental expenditure would be about Rs 31,000 crore and current expenditure would be almost Rs 49,000 crore.

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